Excellent point.
The truth is that every morning I drive a certain route through town to get to work. I don't even think about it. The "pattern" is right,right,left,left,right,right,right.
It's seared into my brain.
If I go uptown for another reason and get to thinking about the world or listening to music or radio, I will do the "pattern" until something hits me that says, "Hey, dummy, you were going to the store...not to work."
Those who say they don't get absent-minded could be constructed differently than I am, or they could be lying just to win an obscure argument on an obscure website.....which happens. :>)
Grace & Strength this day, OLR.
That’s my point in all of this. There but for the grace of God go I. It’s easy at some point to let something distract us from very important details and the results can sometimes, unfortunately, be catastrophic. I know of a woman who was carrying groceries in after a rain. She set her toddler down, picked up the groceries and walked into the house to put the groceries away. She thought the child was with her - she found the child had fallen face first into a puddle, breathed in the water and drowned.
Another man was on a dock with his 3 yo at a small lake. He turned around to pick something up and in that instant the kiddo jumped into the water. He was in right behind him but couldn’t find him in the murky water fast enough and the child drowned.
the way the baby in this situation died is horrific to consider. That the mom had so many opportunities to realize her mistake and didn’t is aggravating and frightening. But the prosecutor’s choice to not press charges is reasonable and, if we are to trust his judgement at all, probably merciful in a time when grief is unimaginable.
LOL I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught myself - or been caught by my husband - driving the “wrong way” because I’m just not thinking about driving out of the neighborhood being any different from all the times I go to work, 5x a day (and worse, many or our non-work things go “right”, not left!). I have actually driven the wrong way and caught myself too late (driven a mile already, etc.). Absent-minded? Yes. Especially since I tend to think about a whole lot of things at once (especially if listening to radio talk - ggrrr!), so going on rote is easier so I can still think about other things!